I shouldn’t have tempted fate. At the end of my article on the poor sound quality of Freeview radio, I mentioned that internet streams are much better, singling out BBC Radio 3 for broadcasting at 320 kb/s. Little did I know, the BBC were just about to switch that stream off. The BBC had announced […]
DAB Digital radio in the UK has long suffered from sound quality issues on many stations due to broadcasters’ preference for squeezing a large number of stations into their multiplexes. The low bitrates utilised mean most stations are even broadcast in mono: a huge backwards step from FM. It is often suggested that anyone wanting […]
Imagine if the Sunday evening broadcast of one of the top drama series on TV failed to go ahead without explanation, with viewers left to stare at a static image for an hour. Pretty unthinkable, isn’t it? In fact, that’s exactly what happened yesterday evening. Of course, it didn’t happen on over-the-air broadcast TV. It […]
Every year since 1996, British classical music station Classic FM has held a poll of the nation’s top 300 pieces of classical music, the Hall of Fame. Unlike the weekly charts that exist for both classical and other genres of music, the Hall of Fame is not intended to rank the best-selling recordings of the […]
Ever since Classic FM’s owners made half-hearted attempts to stop overseas listeners from listening online a few years ago, people around the world have been listening quite happily to internet streams of the station. If the streams are accessed directly by URL, for example using a media player, there is no check of the listener’s […]
The furore over phone hacking has once again put Rupert Murdoch’s proposed takeover of BSkyB into the spotlight. In the past, many people, including both me and Vince Cable’s fake constituent, might have assumed that Murdoch already owned Sky. So how did it come about that he only owns part of it? The answer is […]
It comes as no great surprise that The Times newspaper’s website is to charge for access to content. Rupert Murdoch has been threatening this for some time, having already closed his free London newspaper thelondonpaper last September. But at £1 per day – the current price of the printed daily – how many people are […]
Like many people I was in two minds about whether the BNP‘s leader should appear on the BBC’s Question Time. Free speech is important, but you have to draw the line somewhere. However, after seeing Nick Griffin’s performance, I think his appearance has only made him look a fool. I came as little surprise to […]
The number of complaints made about the BBC radio show in which Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand made a prank call to actor Andrew Sachs currently stands at 27,000. However, the number of people who complained following the actual broadcast stood at just two. The remainder have seemingly only complained following the media coverage in […]
Earlier this month, it was announced that the TV game show, Going for Gold, is to be brought back to TV screens by Channel Five. The first programme is tomorrow. Instead of Henry Kelly, it will be presented by another former Classic FM presenter, John Suchet. There will be some notable changes to the show, […]
